Christian Nikles set two new national records - one open and one age group - at the Southeast Asian (SEA) Swimming Championships in Singapore on Wednesday.
The national swimmer, who is joined by Muhammad Isa Ahmad and Tiara Shahril Anwar at the regional meet being held at the newly completed Singapore Sports Hub, finished sixth in the 50m backstroke on Wednesday with a time of 28.96s, bettering his own time of 29.26s from last November.
Nikles finished eighth in the 50m freestyle with a time of 25.33s yesterday while Muhammad Isa was seventh in the 200m breaststroke after clocking 2:35.95.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, Tiara finished 11th in the 100m freestyle with a time of 1:02.39 and seventh in the 50m butterfly with a time of 32.41s.
In an email sent to The Brunei Times yesterday, national aquatics head coach Eric Landa said he was pleased with the trio's performance at the June 17-22 tournament in the venue which is set to host next year's SEA Games.
Despite competing in their third swim meet in as many weeks and with hiccups such as exams and sickness going into the meet, all three swimmers achieved Landa's target of top-eight results.
"We came here with a clear goal in mind," stated Landa.
"We want to compete at the 2015 SEA Games, and according to our long term athlete development plan which we started in 2011, we should now be top-eight (which means you qualify for the finals) in South East Asia in order to deserve to swim at the 2015 SEA Games.
"And indeed so far it's been clear that we are on the right track.
"It hasn't been easy for the team so far as the two boys have just finished their exams a week ago, which had had some impact on their training attendance," said the coach.
"And unfortunately Tiara fell sick last weekend during the Brunei Interclub Championships and she has just completed her antibiotics today (Thursday).
"After this competition we are going back to working hard in the pool as we always do because there are a couple of big international competitions on the horizon in 2014 - the Commonwealth Games, Youth Olympic Games and Asian Games," he said.
"At this stage we don't really know for sure yet which athletes are going to which competitions, but as always my plans are simple and clear: we train 50 weeks in a year 25 hours a week, always.
"When the decision is taken by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports' National Selection and Valuation Committee and the Brunei Darussalam National Olympic Council regarding athletes selections for certain Games, we can simply tailor the programmes and make it work for those athletes," he added.
